Humanoid robotics seeks to combine, in one machine, the greatest number of characteristics that resemble a human being. The first aim is to approximate the human by the outer appearance, the morphology or the movements. The humanoid robot generally comprises several motorized articulations capable of moving, by means of an electric motor, one limb relative to another. The most advanced humanoid robots thus comprise legs, arms or hands. They are capable of walking or of dancing in the manner of a human being. They are capable of manipulating, in their hands, objects of various forms. Another aim is to approximate the human by its behavior and its intelligence. The artificial intelligence of the robots is increasingly successful, allowing for an increasingly complex interaction with a human user.
There are many possible applications of human robots. Applications are envisaged in the industrial domain, for example for accessing contaminated zones exhibiting a risk for people. Also envisaged are many applications in the health field, for example for assisting people with a deficiency. Also envisaged is use by a wider public for domestic purposes.
The assumed wide scale deployment intended for the widest possible public is generating new constraints, for example industrial, regulatory or of safety. The design of the most recent generations of robots now incorporates a set of constraints for meeting the emerging regulations. For example, the robot intended for the general public must not offer any safety risk, both in normal operation and in the case of a failure. Maintenance operations have to be able to be carried out, by an experienced operator or by a simple user. The aim is to take into account, in the design of the robot, after-sale-related constraints, for example to allow easy diagnostics and simple and rapid repairability.